The Way You Are
by Scarlet has Fantasy Issues
Summary: Everything is ready for the wedding of the century between Damon and his newly created vampire lover, except for the bride. Things turn sour when the bride starts to regress back...The much needed redo sequel to 'Beautiful Monster. Please read and review!


**A/N: I'll admit it 'Beautiful Disaster' was a disaster of a sequel to "Beautiful Monster". I apologize profusely for that mistake, but I'm hoping to redeem myself. I've put a lot of thought into this and if enough people enjoy this, I'll consider doing more chapters. So here's attempt number two.**

**Disclaimer: I don't Damon or Bonnie or any of the characters of Vampire Diaries. I do own Cailee, so please don't steal her without my permission. That is all.**

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Cailee twirled in front of the mirror, holding the black and white wedding dress up in front of her. She couldn't believe how lucky she was to be marrying such a great guy. Her lover, her Damon…

It had only been a couple of weeks since he had proposed to her. Their wedding was supposed to happen at the end of the week. A rushed wedding, but Damon was taking care of all the planning, leaving the dress choice to her. Cailee was glad that she didn't have to worry about wedding planning on top of her school work. That would have been too stressful.

"It's perfect," Cailee whispered, smiling at her reflection as she envisioned herself in the dress once more. "Absolutely perfect."

Her smile fell when she saw something in the mirror. She stared at it for a moment before it changed into something else. Her hands started to shake and she dropped the dress as she spun around to see if the thing was really there. It wasn't really, but she could still see it.

That's when Cailee suddenly became aware of the voices, soft whispering voices that made no sense as they talked amongst themselves. She clamped her hands over her ears, but the voices continued to speak.

"Dammit!" Cailee cried, removing her hands from her ears. "Why? Why are you doing this to me, God?"

Just like He normally did, God offered her no answers. She didn't see why He would do so now anyway. She had been turned into a vampire after all. Vampires were creatures of great evil and God could not be around evil. He did not help the wicked, so why should He help her?

Cailee let out an exasperated sigh and picked up her dress as the delirium overtook her. She refused to look at the mirror to see the horror she had become. It didn't matter if she did anyway because standing in front of her was a doppelganger, blood dribbling down her chin, staining her clothes while a man's head was gripped in her hand. Cailee stared at herself in fear and the doppelganger smirked.

"No!" Cailee exclaimed, throwing her dress onto her bed and diving for her cell phone.

Her first instinct was to call Damon to tell him what was going on, to ask him if he could come to her now. Then she remembered how happy he had been to hear that she was cured. He'd been so happy that he had been wearing a beautiful smile every time he saw her. He had called her 'beautiful' and said that now they could 'really live'.

_Damon, you don't want to be tied down to a vampire forever more if she isn't sane, _Cailee thought, her thumb hovering over the buttons on her cell phone. _You want someone who's sane and good in bed and beautiful…I don't have any of those traits…You deserve better._

Cailee pressed a few buttons and waited, tapping her foot impatiently. A second later, the other line picked up and Cailee took a shaky breath. "Bonnie…I need your help…"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Damon smiled as he maneuvered a helium heart-shaped balloon and a giant panda bear plushy out of his car. He looked up at Cailee's house, hoping that she wasn't peeking through the windows to see who had pulled up in driveway. He didn't see her, so he knew the surprise would still be a surprise.

_Cailee, you've made me the happiest person in the world ever since we met_, Damon thought, closing the door of his car with his foot, careful not to dent it. _I can't imagine my life without you and since you promised to become my bride, I won't have to. You are my love, my heart forever…_He smirked to himself. _We're an even better couple than the 'heroes'. Ha! I finally did something that Stefan could never do._

He heard whispering as he neared the door and paused. It sounded like Cailee had company. The older vampire took a deep breath, scenting the air.

_Bonnie? What's she doing here?_

Damon moved everything into one hand and took his key from his pocket, fitting it into the lock. He stepped into the front hall and closed the door behind him, locking it as Cailee always had by force of habit from back when she suffered paranoia with her schizophrenia. It seemed like just an old habit now and Damon wasn't keen on changing it since he knew that his brother and Stefan's girlfriend would like to keep a close eye on the two of them. Honestly, they were all adults and Damon didn't see why he had to be babysat by his little brother.

"Cailee," Damon called softly, hoping to draw her away from Bonnie so he could show her the surprise.

Instead of her skipping happily into the hall to greet him, Damon heard her sniffle and whimper. Damon set down the bear and tied the balloon around its arm. The surprise could wait for now. His Cailee was upset and he was going to find out why.

"Cailee," Damon said, entering the living room in two steps.

Cailee looked up from her hands for one moment, tears running down her face. Bonnie was holding one of Cailee's hands and the witch looked at him with sad eyes. Damon didn't understand any of this. What had taken away the happiness that he had left with Cailee not more than a few hours ago?

"Cailee," Damon spoke her name again and she flinched, turning her face away from him. "What's wrong, hon?"

Bonnie patted Cailee's hand and looked into Cailee's eyes. "Do you want me to tell him, Cailee?"

Cailee shook her head furiously. "I- I should…"

"Don't worry about it," Bonnie whispered with a soft smile. "I'm sure he'll understand." She gently slipped her hand free of Cailee's. "I'll be in the kitchen if you need me."

Damon visibly saw the hope in Cailee drain out of her body as she watched her friend leave the room. She cast a look in his direction before looking back down at her hands, her fingers twitching.

"Cailee…"

"Damon, please don't be mad at me," Cailee whispered, her voice softer than Bonnie's. "I tried... to make you happy…We were happy for awhile, weren't we?"

"Cailee, hon, you're babbling," Damon pointed out, crossing the room to sit on the coffee table in front of her. "Something is bothering you, so you might as well tell me what it is before I go search your diary for the answers."

Cailee didn't even react to that. She stared at him with sad eyes full of tears and her fingers twitched. "Damon…I…I want to call off the wedding," she told him quietly.

It felt like someone had just punched him in the gut and stole his breath away. "What?"

"I…I want to call off…the wedding…" She closed her eyes, drawing in a shaky breath. "I don't deserve you and…"

"God dammit Cailee!" Damon snapped, jumping to his feet. "What put that stupid idea in your head? Elena? Katherine? Bonnie? Or was it Stefan?" His eyes turned black. "If it's any one of them, tell me because I swear I'll kill them! I'll kill them!"

Cailee's eyes snapped open and she looked scared. "None of them put the idea in my head! I have enough in my head already to know that that idea has been there the whole time! I ..I don't deserve to be your wife forever…Not even for a minute."

"Why not?" Damon demanded, quickly cooling down when he saw the fear he had placed in her eyes. "Cailee, I've always wanted you to be my wife…ever since I first met you…Don't deny me the opportunity of a lifetime..."

Cailee looked down at her hands. "I can't make you happy anymore…not now…never again…"

"You've always made me happy. Every moment I spend with you is the happiest I've ever had."

"I wish I could believe that was true Damon, but that was in the past. Two weeks ago and beyond, back to the moment we met…Not anymore…" Her eyes watered, growing wetter. "Damon, you were so happy to be unburdened by my sickness…now I'm afraid that I'll become a burden once more."

"Cailee?"

"The voices are back Damon and so are the hallucinations," Cailee cried before rising to her feet. "I'm…not cured anymore…and your happiness with me is dead!"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Cailee saw the stunned look on Damon's face, the second of helplessness in his eyes. Then she saw a rotting, decaying form standing in front of her. She panicked and ran, avoiding the hand that reached out to her, not knowing if it was friend or foe.

The red head was scared to death of what was happening to her after so much time of being 'normal'. She had barely tasted 'normal', had barely felt the peace that came with it. It had been snatched all too soon from her and all she could think about was sparing her love pain. Her Damon shouldn't have to worry about someone with problems like hers. He deserved better than her.

Cailee burst into her room and closed the door behind her, locking it. The effort it took her to do that, seemed to have drained out all of her energy and she sagged down against the door, choking sobs issuing from her. Tears fell in rivers from her eyes and she pulled at her hair, squeezing her eyes shut against the world.

"God! Please help me!" she whispered, banging her head back against the door. "Please! What have I done to deserve this? Why did You curse my life like this? Why did You bring me the other half of my heart, only to force it away from me when I find out that Your curse is still on me?"

The heavens rumbled from above and Cailee shivered from an inner cold. She couldn't believe it was going to end like this. Her, a vampire, walking the earth forever with schizophrenia and the terrors that came with it. Finding no friendship that lasted, no love as strong. Her Damon, no longer hers. She couldn't stand to think of the truth in all of this…

"Damon, I'm…sorry…"

OOOOOOOOOOOO

The elder Salvatore stood in the living room for a moment, too stunned to speak or move. Everything seemed to be moving so quickly as if trying to keep up with the events that had took place in the living room. Damon ran a hand through his hair and looked up when he heard Cailee crying. She was so close to him, but so far away, trapped in the midst of…

"Bonnie!" Damon muttered, walking into the kitchen with a frown on his face.

The witch glanced at him for a brief moment before looking back at her soda. Damon was not content to be ignored like that and knocked the soda across the kitchen, not caring how the liquid within splattered across the floor. It would be a sticky mess to clean up later, but that didn't matter to him right now.

"What the hell is going on Bonnie?" Damon demanded, glaring at her.

Bonnie sighed. "Cailee is hearing the voices and seeing things again. She's not cured anymore Damon and I don't think she ever was...I haven't heard of any vampires turning a mentally ill human into a vampire…maybe that's because vampirism doesn't cure mental ailments like it does with physical ones…"

"But she didn't hear the voices or see anything for two weeks…how could she not be…?" Damon trailed off, thinking back on the times when Cailee, as a human, had experienced moments of peace in her life that spanned from a mere hour to a whole month. It would be no different now if he faced the facts that said she was not cured. "Oh…" He sank down on a stool next to Bonnie. "Why didn't she tell me sooner?"

"She didn't have an episode until a few hours ago," Bonnie explained calmly. "And then she was too panicked to tell you…"

"But why tell you? She's always depended on me when she was having her episodes?

Bonnie shot him an 'are you serious' look. "Damon, think about how you've been acting for the past couple of weeks," Bonnie told him when the look didn't get through to him. "You've been happy, practically bubbly! Why?"

"Because I get to marry Cailee," Damon said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"That's how you see it, but in Cailee's opinion you've been happier with her being 'cured' than you were when you two were together before she became a vampire." She glared at him, the power within her making the air around her crackle for a moment. "Damon, how could you let her think that just because she had a moment of clarity that you were happier? Didn't you say that you were happiest with her because she was unique?"

"Well…"

"Damon, a friend of mine is hurting right now because she thinks that you don't want to deal with her schizophrenia anymore. First her family abandoned her and now she thinks you're going to follow their example. She's petrified of what will happen if she has no one to depend on."

"Don't get your panties in a bunch." Damon crossed his arms and looked across the bar at a wall covered in pictures that Cailee had made with her own hands. He stared at one in particular and stood up. "I'll go talk to her."

"Good," Bonnie said, grabbing her purse. "If you don't make things right, I will…dot, dot, dot…" She smiled prettily. "Okay?"

"The women around here are just so kind," Damon muttered sarcastically, taking the picture he'd been looking at off the wall. "Honestly, I don't think I could find better role models for Cailee."

"Just make things right."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Cailee was pacing around her room, muttering to herself and to the voices in her head in an attempt to cancel out the noise in her head. She felt so convinced that the voices were in the room with her instead of in her head, but she knew that that was wrong. The voices were always going to be in her head and there seemed to be no getting around that, no matter what she became.

"Roses…purple roses," Cailee whispered, trying to imagine the meadow with the purple roses where she could escape to when everything got bad, but she couldn't. There was too much chaos in her head to form the world. "Damon…no, not Damon…I can't hurt Damon…no, I already told you that I can't hurt Damon…"

Cailee whirled around when she heard a noise outside her window. She cried out in alarm when she saw a panda bear on the roof just outside her window, falling back against her door.

"Good evening Miss Cailee," Damon said, appearing next to the bear with a balloon his hand. "Would you mind opening the window for me?"

Cailee nodded and walked across the room. She unlocked the window and opened it slowly, breathing in the clean, cool air of the approaching night. Damon entered through the window and softly pressed a kiss to her temple. Cailee, remembering the events of not more than an hour ago, turned her face away and rubbed her right arm.

"Damon, what are you doing here?" she asked in a weary voice.

"Where else would I go?"

"Away…off to find some girl who suits your needs and fancy."

Damon set the bear on her desk chair and reattached the balloon. "I already found that girl…"

_So he's already moved on…_Cailee sank down onto the foot of her bed. "She'll be one lucky girl for having you…"

Damon turned to face her and smiled. "Well, I hope she'll stop moping around the house. It doesn't suit her. I can't stand to see her look so down."

"Then comfort her."

"All right."

Cailee expected Damon to walk out the door right then and there, but he didn't. He crossed the room and took her into his arms, holding her close. Cailee breathed in his scent, his warm, familiar scent for a moment before meeting his gaze. She didn't understand what was happening.

"Damon…"

"I don't want you to be sad anymore, Miss Cailee," Damon said, looking down at her with his dark eyes. "Nothing – not Heaven, Hell, or high water – is going to take me away from you. I don't care if you hear the voices or not…You and me, we make a perfect pair. Don't you see that?"

"I see that your happiness is gone," Cailee whispered with a frown.

"Cailee, my happiness never leaves when I'm around you or when I just think about you…I…I want you to look at this and remember the night that you drew this," Damon said, pulling a drawing out of his pocket.

The redhead took the drawing into her hands and looked down at it. It was of two people wrapped in each other's arms. Cailee tried to concentrate on that night instead of the voices, to remember what had happened that night…

_Cailee was sketching furiously, not really sure what she was drawing but she couldn't stop to look at the image. She had to get the image out of her head or she would explode from within._

"_Cailee…"_

_She ignored Damon's soothing voice and drew with quick, jerky movements. The paper ripped underneath her pencil, but she continued to draw. With the drawing done, Cailee threw aside the paper with a quiet sob, tears starting to well up in her eyes. _

_She had drawn Bonnie's dead body and it tore her up inside to realize that._

"_Damon…I'm…I'm…a monster!" Cailee exclaimed, looking up at him. "Make the voices go away…Please, just make the voices go away…"_

_Damon set down the pop that was in his hands and wrapped his arms around her, rubbing her back soothingly. Cailee stiffened in his arms and pulled herself free._

"_No…Damon, no!" Cailee turned her back on him, picking up her pencil once more. "You should leave…for good. You're not the type of boy who should be stuck with a freak forever. I'll leech the happiness out of you with each of my episodes." She sighed. "I won't stop you. So go."_

"_And let someone else call dibs on you?" Damon asked, cocking his head to the side with a teasing grin. "I thought I told you that I was the only one that would have the honor of dating you among other things."_

_Cailee blushed a light shade of pink as she pulled out a fresh piece of paper. "You really want to stay?"_

"_I'll never leave. I'm kind of Bella Swan who's kind of like herpes. You can't get rid of me."_

"_I don't know if I should be happy about that or grossed out because you related yourself to an STD…"_

"_Be happy cuz, hon, you ain't getting rid of me," Damon said with a mock country twang just to get her to giggle. "Miss Cailee, we aren't getting separated even during the Rapture. We're stuck like glue and I couldn't be happier with you. I love you and am happy with the way you are."_

_Cailee looked down at her drawing and saw that a picture of two people holding one another was taking shape. "You mean that?"_

"_Yes." Damon pressed a kiss on her neck and gently nipped it, almost playfully. "I love you, Miss Cailee."_

"_I love you too Mr. Damon."_

Cailee stared down at the paper in her hands, feeling stupid. Damon looked at her, waiting for her to look up at him.

"Well?" he asked when she continued to stare at the picture.

"You're like herpes," Cailee whispered with the hint of a smile on her face as she glanced up at him.

Damon smiled down at her. "You'll never get rid of me. No matter what you do or how crazy you make me, I'll always be here and I'll always love you."

"That's our poem…" Cailee said, letting the picture fall to the floor. "Damon, are you sure you want to be stuck with a vampire with schizophrenia?"

"I'm sure of two things," Damon told her, wrapping his arms around her waist. "That I'm incredibly sexy compared to Stefan or any guy in general. And, that I am going to marry you at the end of the week so I can spend the rest of eternity with you, Miss Cailee."

Cailee smiled and bounced up onto her toes, brushing her lips against his. For a moment, she didn't care that the voices were starting to act up again or that she was slipping into a hallucination. All that mattered to her was that she was with the man she loved and that he was never going to abandon her no matter how bad it got….

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

**A/N: So what do you think? Was this a better one-shot than the disaster? Leave your comments on the review page, or if you don't want anyone to see your review, message it to me. As usual, I thank you and bid you adieu for now. ~ Scarlet**


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